Rabinovich (Rabinowitsch) Isaak Moiseevich (01 September 1911, Kraslava – 06 November 1977, Riga) - historian of mathematics and a pioneer of historical-astronomical research in Latvia.
Isaak Rabinovich belonged to a well-known family in Kraslava. His father was an active public figure who served as mayor of the city from 1925 to 1929. Rabinovich graduated from the Kraslava Gymnasium in 1928 and from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Latvian State University in 1945.
From 1946 to 1957, he worked at the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Riga branch of the Leningrad Correspondence Industrial Institute and taught preparatory courses at the Riga Polytechnic Institute. In 1964, he became a research fellow at the Radio Astrophysical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, where he worked until 1972.
He actively participated in editing and publishing the popular science collection Zvaigžņotā Debess (“The Starry Sky”) and the astronomical calendar. He was a member of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Society, the Union of Journalists of the Latvian SSR, and the Commission on the History of Astronomy of the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1958 onward, he actively took part in conferences devoted to the history of science. His first publication appeared in 1933. He was the author of 186 scholarly and popular science works.
His manuscripts, including unpublished materials, are preserved in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Latvia.
Works:
Mathematician Peirce Bohl from Riga (Математик Пирс Боль из Риги). Riga: Zinātne, 1965 (co-authored with A. Myshkis);
“The Courland Astrologer Georg Krüger” (Курляндский астролог Георг Крюгер)in From the History of Natural Sciences and Technology in the Baltic Region. Riga: Zinātne, 1968, Vol. 1;
“Heliocentrism in Latvia in the 17th–18th Centuries,”(Гелиоцентризм в Латвии в XVII—XVIII веках) in From the History of Natural Sciences and Technology in the Baltic Region. Riga: Zinātne, 1971, Vol. 3;
“Copernicus’ Teaching in Latvia,”(Учение Коперника в Латвии) in Nicolaus Copernicus. Moscow: Nauka, 1973.
Literature:
Reizins L., Stradiņš J., Heniņš I. Isaac Moiseevich Rabinovich, in From the History of Natural Sciences and Technology in the Baltic Region. Riga: Zinātne, 1980, Vol. 6.